Steve's Random Musings on Wargaming and other stuff...: 1st Battalion Virginia Infantry (Irish)

Friday, February 12

1st Battalion Virginia Infantry (Irish)

Maj David Benjamin Bridgford

For a change, and because it's been a while, and because Sean at Newline Designs was running a New Year sale (

) I decided it was time to add some reinforcements to the American Civil War project.. and first up some Confederates...

After some interesting research into the history of the regiment I had a whole better understanding of what the background was to these Virginian regiments I have been adding to the project.. these are the eighth of them by the way!

When Virginia seceded from the Union (on the 17th April, 1861), the state government looked to create an army of two regiments of artillery, eight regiments of infantry and one regiment of cavalry. The troops in these units were expected to enlist for three years, but because most of the men joining the colours expected the war to be short, most chose to enlist in volunteer regiments where they only needed to serve for one year. As a result only one battalion sized infantry unit of the provisional army came into being- the 1st Battalion Virginia Infantry (Irish) - these guys, and my first regulars as the other Viriginian regiments in the project are volunteer.

The battalion was organised and formed in May 1861 (just one month after seccession!), and the volunteers consisted mainly of Irish laborers from towns and cities such as Norfolk, Alexandria, Covington, Richmond and Lynchburg (as an aside, is there any other nation in the world, apart from perhaps the Scots, who have fought in so many wars as the Irish?).

Although most of the men were Irish, the unit was officered by native-born Virginians, many of whom had been trained at the Virginia Military Institute and at West Point. The five companies were mustered into Confederate service on 30th June 1861 as the 1st Battalion Virginia Regulars.

Company A ( Captain Benjamin W. Leigh)

Company B ( Captain David B. Bridgford)

Company C (Captain Thom)

Company D (Captain Seddon)

Company E ( Captain James Y. Jones)

At Kernstown they numbered 187 Officers and men (quite a small regiment then), and were in Colonel Jesse Burks brigade under the overall command of Captain David B. Bridgford (that's him top left). At the start of the battle they were assigned to provide infantry support to the Confederate artillery, and specifically to Captain Carpenter’s Battery [clicky].

The regiment remained in position with Carpenter’s guns, under fire from Union artillery on Pritchard’s Hill for around 90 minutes, until at approximately 4.30pm they were ordered to move a half-mile to their left front, where the main battle was now being fought.

In their new position they provided flank support for the Confedferate attempts to outflank Pritchard’s Hill and were poitioned to the rear of the Rockbridge artillery.

As we've already seen in other unit histories, the main focus of the Conferate fighting at Kersntown was the long low wall on Sandy Ridge which both sides had initially raced to occupy - the Confederates had got their first, but after that, the contest had swung both ways for nearly two hours. Late afternoon and the 1st Virginia were ordered to move again, towards the top of the Ridge and into the battle for the stone wall. Confusion lead to three companies (including Bridgford) moving to the left of the line and two towards the right.

From Bridgford's own recollections:‘[The] position was directly opposite the enemy’s line, at a range of not more than twenty yards. We immediately took part in the action. The firing was general and continuous along both lines. The ground we occupied was soon dotted with dead and wounded men. The fire of the enemy was exceedingly severe. The colors of the battalion were planted on the crest of the ridge by Color-Sergeant Kenney…’

Casualties were beginning to mount and included second Lieutenant Heth of Company D, and acting Sergeant-Major James Duggan from Derry who took a horrific wound to the face.The two separated companies of the battalion (under Captain Thom) suffered similarly, but had twice repelled Union assaults, with Thom himself taking a bullet to the left breast, which was stopped from entering his body by a copy of the New Testament in his pocket (!).

When the Confederate line began to crumble/retire and was forced into retreat (blaming lack of ammunition), the 1st Virginia retired with the rest of the army, back down the Valley Pike where happily the Union army was too disorganised to give chase.

Deployment of the 1Va.[click to embigen] source below

Bridgford reported 47 casualties after the battle, the regimental rolls including 6 killed, 20 wounded and 21 missing, although the unit’s muster rolls indicated 59 killed /wounded /missing - 30% losses..

The regiment continued to fight with Jackson’s army during the Valley Campaign, they then became the Provost Guard for Jackson’s Corps on 11th October 1862 (Bridgford was promoted to Major at the same time), and for the entire Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Despite this provost role the regiment was noted for it's desertion rates, and poor discipline. The regiment (missing most of it's original Irish contingent by then) surrendered with the rest of Robert E. Lee’s army at Appomattox Court House in 1865.

After his promotion to Major, Bridgford became Provost Marshall to Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in January 1863. He survived the war and surrendered at Appomattox before eventually dying in 1888. I had to chuckle - he had two children, a girl and a boy, and the boys first name was Jackson.. clearly Bridgford was an admirer..

Figures are Newline Designs 20mm painted in January/February 2021, I chose the patchwork grey/brown look for the uniforms, that I see in my minds eye for the finacially challenged Southern regiments. The flag is entirely conjectural - I never found a depiction on line while doing research - so I took one of the Virignia regimental flags from the excellent warflag.com site, updated the regimental number, and added an entirely romantically-based harp in Paint, and there you go...!